Government money will rebuild the Central Parade seafront, Collins Road and Honeysuckle Way play areas. Herne Bay was picked on child poverty and playground shortage. Tenders go out this autumn.
Three Herne Bay play areas will be rebuilt with £270,000 of government money, after Canterbury City Council won a place in the national Playground Fund.
The council announced the award on Tuesday 2 September (Canterbury City Council).
The three sites are:
- the seafront play area on Central Parade
- Collins Road, Greenhill
- Honeysuckle Way, Broomfield
The council says it has already run public consultations at all three sites to shape the designs. A tender process to appoint a play company to supply and install the equipment starts in the autumn.
Cllr Mel Dawkins, the cabinet member for play areas, said: “This is more good news for children and families in Herne Bay as we continue our work to upgrade the town’s play equipment.” Cllr Dawkins credited council officers with completing “this bid at very short notice”.
Herne Bay was named by the government, not chosen by the council
The detail the council’s announcement leaves out is why Herne Bay.
The £18m Playground Fund is run by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. It is not open to every council. Ministers picked 66 local authorities in England, and for each one they also named a target built-up area. Canterbury’s named area is Herne Bay (GOV.UK).
The four measures used to select those places were:
- the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index
- the number of children per playground
- playground size
- how far children have to travel to reach a playground
In other words, Herne Bay is on the list because the government’s own data says it has both a high share of children living in low-income households and too little play provision for them.
Three other Kent and Medway authorities are on the same list of 66: Dover, Medway and Thanet.
How the money is split, and the deadline
The £270,000 is not a single cheque. Every recipient authority gets the same amount over two financial years, split into capital and revenue:
| Year | Capital | Revenue |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-27 | £120,000 | £15,000 |
| 2027-28 | £120,000 | £15,000 |
That is £240,000 for the equipment and groundworks and £30,000 for the running costs of getting it done. Every authority in the scheme has to deliver three playgrounds, newly built or refurbished, and all the money must be spent or committed by 31 March 2028.
The guidance also sets conditions on how the work is done. Councils must show “proportionate, meaningful engagement with children, young people, families and caregivers, local residents and relevant local stakeholders throughout site selection, design and delivery”. Accessibility and inclusion, it says, “should be designed in from the start”.
The bidding window ran from 18 June to 17 August 2026, which explains the council’s reference to a bid completed at short notice.
What it means for you
Nothing changes at the three play areas yet. The council has to run a tender before any equipment is ordered, and that starts in the autumn, so work on the ground is unlikely before 2027. The hard deadline is 31 March 2028.
This is separate from the work already under way at Memorial Park, where a £300,000 accessible playground has been under construction since 24 August and is due to finish in early October. Between the two schemes, Herne Bay has £570,000 of play area work committed.
If you use the Central Parade, Collins Road or Honeysuckle Way playgrounds, the design consultations have already happened, but the government’s conditions require continuing engagement through design and delivery. The council’s consultations are listed at news.canterbury.gov.uk/consultations.
More Herne Bay information: bin collection days, council tax bands and parking.
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